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Chapter 415. The Price of Bonds (3)
The original aspiration of cultivating the Dao had grown considerably muddled over time, but across the long sweep of history, martial arts had established itself as something inseparable from the lives of its practitioners.
As with any field, once enough people gain experience in it, strange and outlandish individuals inevitably emerge.
This tendency was especially pronounced when it came to martial arts.
Rather than using martial arts to temper their bodies to the extreme, these individuals used their bodies to test how far martial arts could be pushed.
Acupoint-sealing arts were born from such madmen.
Е́ǹ uṁ a .і̂ ḋ
Acupoint-sealing—a practice used to restore internal ailments through stimulation and circulation, and to invigorate the vital energy of select organs in order to bring the entire body into harmony.
If acupoint-sealing could save a life, could it not also do the opposite? From that simple notion, this branch of martial arts proposed an entirely new perspective, and it captured the fervent interest of martial artists at the time.
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Creating a brilliant technique and etching one's name into history was, after all, something every martial artist yearned for.
And so, amid a tempest of popularity, countless acupoint-sealing arts were born.
The principle was alluring on the surface: one could afflict an opponent as if they had been poisoned—without using actual poison—and restore them to normal without an antidote.
As a flood of different acupoint-sealing arts poured forth and the practice began to see frequent use in real combat, the reason why martial artists over the preceding centuries had never bothered to develop such techniques gradually came to light.
Е_nu ḿ а_. і̄d̀
First, execution took time.
To perform acupoint-sealing, one had to close to punching range—and finding acupoints accurately through layers of clothing was no simple task. A clumsy attempt was more likely to end with one's head rolling across the ground.
Furthermore, the difficulty and time required were not matched by the results.
Acupoint-sealing could not inflict damage as reliably as direct poison. Depending on the practitioner's purity of inner arts and understanding of qi manipulation, it was easy to counter.
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In short, the return was abysmal for the effort invested.
As the ancient sages had said—if something has never existed before, there is usually a good reason. One by one, practitioners abandoned or forgot the acupoint-sealing arts they had created.
Wе̂ b̈ n о v е̊ l Е ṅ u m̃а̄
And at the tail end of that fading craze, the real thing appeared.
If execution was difficult, then make it easy.
Strike the numbing acupoints first to immobilize the target, then select only the most dangerous death acupoints to neutralize them as quickly as possible.
If victims could undo the sealing through pure inner arts and qi understanding, then make it so that even the one who had applied it could not reverse it. Problem solved.
While everyone else said it could not be done, this acupoint-sealing art appeared and shoved a fist in the face of the entire world.
The Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula.
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A name longer than most sword arts.
'Shit...... but why—'
And right now, it was the name of the thing eating me alive.
'Why is it showing up now?!'
The Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula, true to its brutal design, was made to kill its victims in the most excruciating agony possible.
The greater problem was that no known cure existed.
Е̊ n̈ ũmá.і̇ ḋ
That was precisely why even the Black Path murim—that cesspool of the worst scum under heaven—had designated the Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula as a Forbidden Art, and hunted down everyone who had learned or even knew of it.
"SHIT! How is this possible?!"
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Yet a technique that had vanished two hundred years ago had just appeared right in front of me.
"What the hell kind of luck is this?!"
Worse still, I had not been struck while in peak condition. I had been force-fed the Taiji Pill and then subjected to the Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula.
It was like sealing every spout of a kettle and then boiling the water inside.
Ẁе b n_ӧ v̀ е̇ l Е̃ n̄ u ṁ а
'If I leave this as is...... the lid's going to blow off......'
There was no time to speculate about the deranged old man's identity.
If the lid blew off, I would have neither the leisure to think nor the head to think with.
I could feel my acupoints slowly solidifying, and at the same time, an endless surge of heat blazed upward from my qi center.
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I thought about sitting cross-legged, but with my numbing acupoints sealed, my body was locked rigid and refused to move.
Thank heavens I had trained in Moving Circulation.
Е̌ñum̊ а̂
I hurried to draw up my energy and began working on the numbing acupoints first. At the very least, I had to get into a cross-legged position.
But—
"GAAAAH!"
The instant I set my energy in motion through Moving Circulation, agony clamped down on every fiber of my body. I recoiled and released the circulation in shock.
"What the hell......"
Everywhere the energy tried to flow, I felt a stabbing pain as though thorns were being driven into my flesh.
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This was not something a human being could endure in their right mind.
The Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula was indisputably more savage than anything recorded in the texts.
My Qi and Blood locked stiff, and beyond that, the sensation in my muscles and nerves began to dull.
Yet of all sensations, pain alone grew sharper with every passing moment.
My inner arts were already rampaging, the erupting energy thrashing blindly inside my qi center with nowhere to go.
The churning made my stomach heave and roll.
Ẃ е̌b ǹo v е́ l̂ Е̂ nũ ḿ а̀
"Nngh— HURRRGH."
Without having done a single thing, a mouthful of blood surged up and spewed out.
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Through the thick reek of iron trickling down the corners of my mouth, I understood.
'If I leave this...... I die.'
I could not escape death without enduring pain that felt like death itself.
The gates of the afterlife seemed to shimmer before my eyes, and the memories of my life streamed through my mind.
Е̊n̊ǔmа . і̂d
Yeah, this life had been a hard one too...... wait.
"I'm supposed to die here and not even fighting the Demonic Cult?!!"
Even for someone born under a cursed star, the Jade Emperor had seriously overstepped the line.
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!!!!"
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I will not die.
Even if it kills me, I will not die!
Ẽ n̊ū ma
I bit down hard to keep from severing my own tongue.
And through the maddening agony, I forced my energy to move.
"NNNNNNGGGGAAAAHHH!!!!"
Through the harrowing pain, the grinning face of that old man surfaced in vivid clarity.
'You're dead to me, old man!'
I swallowed the blood that surged up my throat and repeated the vow, over and over.
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***
"Was that not excessive?"
At Blood Battle's words, the old man turned from the sealed cave and shook his head.
"Is he not the child who did our job for us? A debt must be repaid."
"......Was it not to your liking that Strategist Dam returned alive?"
"Hm? What are you on about?"
Ё n̈ um ǎ . і̌ d̈
They stared at each other, heads tilted, each baffled by the other.
"Of course I am grateful. The boy is Orthodox Path, no less—and he risked his life for Dam Ak, who may well be the future of the Black Path. Naturally the kindness must be repaid. Tsk tsk."
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"Repaid...... you say?"
Blood Battle looked back and forth between the sealed cave entrance and the old man.
Black Demon Divine Spirit.
A legendary master from two generations past, a figure of myth within the Black Path murim.
Ē n̊ ů ḿӓ
So thoroughly erased from living memory that he had become, in effect, an immortal—yet here he was, both feet still planted firmly in the mortal world.
But perhaps it was the limitations of his origins. He may have ascended to the level of an immortal, but his eccentricity was beyond even Blood Battle's comprehension, fellow Black Path denizen though he was.
'His exploits in the old days were hard enough to fathom.'
Their departure from the Black Forest to the murim had been driven by unexpectedly urgent circumstances.
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They had traveled all the way to Hubei—the Orthodox Path's own front yard—to rescue Dam Ak, but the very moment they were about to move, the old man had stopped him.
"Things are turning out to be entertaining. Let us watch a while."
W̊е̌ b̆ n ǒv̀ е l Ẽ.ṅ úm а
Despite Cha Seok-du's desperate pleas for just one intervention, the old man had not so much as lent an ear—yet once they reached the mortal world, he had gleefully observed events unfold like a child at play.
More precisely, from the moment he laid eyes on Jin So-un.
And yet, even as Dam Ak and the Black Thought Alliance escort, and Jin So-un and the Taeul Sect members, had teetered on the brink of life and death time and again, the old man—who had come all this way to rescue Dam Ak—simply gnawed on jerky, sipped wine, and watched.
Then, after standing by through the entire affair, the instant the dust settled, he had appeared before Jin So-un—the single greatest contributor to the outcome—and attacked him.
Attacked with agony severe enough to drive a man to the edge of death.
To any observer, it looked exactly like punishment born of displeasure.
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And yet here he sat, discussing repayment of kindness with the most serene expression imaginable.
"He held on to Dam Ak through desperate, harrowing circumstances to the very end—that is surely a kindness worth repaying."
"That...... may be so, but how is this repaying kindness? It looks like you are repaying it with enmity."
"When did I repay it with enmity?"
"......"
Was the old man seriously claiming that inflicting the Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula constituted repaying a debt?
Е nu m̆ а
Could it be that, having spent so long away from the mortal world, his mind had...... no. Perhaps he had simply forgotten what the word meant?
While Blood Battle committed his own private blasphemy—
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"What do you believe that child needs most right now?"
The old man's solemn voice echoed through the mountains.
After a moment's thought, Blood Battle answered.
"In the end, it would be the understanding that comes from discourse on martial philosophy—but what he lacks most urgently is knowledge of qi manipulation."
W e ḃ n ŏ v̇ē l̃ Ѐ n ùm̆ а̃
The deep study that no martial manual or secret text could teach.
That was what Jin So-un was missing.
It was not hard to understand why.
He may have recovered his sect's martial arts, but at best he would have developed them into original techniques on his own, training in solitude.
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He had risen to his level quickly, but at some point he must have hit a wall of stagnation.
Learning from books meant forging the path yourself, after all.
Wе b ǹ о̃ v е̇ ľ Ӗ ň uṁ.ӓ
"Well observed. And that is why I gave the boy my guidance."
Guidance? What guid—
"The guidance of this 'Black Demon Divine Spirit,' unmatched through the ages. I have bestowed upon him a fortuitous encounter—is that not repaying his kindness? No, perhaps by doing this, I have put him further in my debt. Hah hah hah!"
This insane old man......
Has he lost his mind from living too long?
"How is the Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula a fortuitous encounter?!"
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"Tsk tsk. If he overcomes a tribulation unmatched through the ages, that in itself means being reborn. Is that not obvious?"
The old man chided Blood Battle as though his insight were too shallow.
Blood Battle ventured a cautious question.
"Has...... anyone ever overcome the Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula?"
The Black Demon Divine Spirit answered with the breezy cheerfulness of someone asked whether water was wet.
"No."
Ẇ ě b̈ nŏ v е́l̇ Еnum̆ а̄
"......"
"That damned Wicked Art is so vicious that no one could ever withstand it."
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Blood Battle was too dumbfounded for even a hollow laugh.
"......Then it is not a fortuitous encounter at all."
"Bah! Tsk! This is why you young folk know nothing. A fortuitous encounter naturally means a cliff encounter, does it not? To gain the fortune, you must first fall off the cliff!"
But most people who fall off a cliff die.
Ё n̂ ũ m̀ а́. і̊ ḋ
Pushing someone off a cliff and calling it a fortuitous encounter is not fortune—it is murder.
A long sigh escaped Blood Battle's lips.
"So what you are saying is that he must survive a brush with death."
"The boy has no master. He has studied on his own all this time, and he will have no choice but to continue doing so. For someone like him, this method is the finest education there is."
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"......"
"Well, it is also quite entertaining. Tsk tsk."
Е n um а̊ .і̊ d̄_
Blood Battle was sorely tempted to point out that the last remark sounded like the honest truth, but he held it in and turned his gaze to the sealed cave.
He wanted nothing more than to tear that wretched boulder away, rush in, and help Jin So-un—but even if he went inside, there was nothing he could do.
The Asura Gold-Shackling Jade-Shattering Formula was that kind of technique.
All he could offer was a prayer for the departed.
'May you be reborn in your next life as a cherished disciple of a prestigious sect. One where you will never cross paths with a deranged Black Path madman like this.'
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK—
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Just then, an eerie sound of grinding bones turned his head. The old man's form was changing.
His hunched back straightened. The creases on his face pulled taut once more.
Were it not for the white hair, he could have been mistaken for Blood Battle's grandson.
From the lips of the old man—no, the youth who had shed his outer skin—a pleasant tenor voice flowed.
"The boy said he wanted to come to the Black Forest, did he not?"
"Yes. He did."
Е̇ň ū m а
Blood Battle swallowed the words 'He's dead because of you, though' and nodded.
"Tell him to visit sometime. I would like to see how he turns out."
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"......"
How was a dead man supposed to visit the Black Forest?
Blood Battle once more held his tongue and followed silently in the wake of the Black Demon Divine Spirit.
***
Ẅ ӗb́ n ǒ vе ľ Е̄.n ǔm̊ а̃
"Whew......"
Jegal So-myeong took a sip of tea and released a long breath.
At that sigh of relief, Hyeok Mu-gang offered a word of comfort.
"You have worked hard."
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"We have not even begun."
He had arrested every individual connected to the Hall of Repose incident and brought them before the Inspection Office, yet it still did not feel as though he had reached the starting line.
E nú m̊ a
A grueling road of painstaking prosecution and trials still lay ahead.
"First, we need to reorganize the personnel."
It was an unavoidable reality that Murim Alliance members moved in accordance with the interests of their respective sects.
The Murim Alliance had never existed as a unified body to begin with.
Even so, this time they had gone far over the line.
The Heavenly Eye Pavilion Master had tendered his resignation, but the reason Jegal So-myeong had detained him and turned him over to the Inspection Office was precisely that.
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This was not the sort of offense that could be absolved by stepping down.
"The Righteous Path Association will push back hard."
"Hmm, and yet we cannot fill all those vacancies with Orthodox Path Association members, either."
As the Grand Strategist sank into thought, Alliance Leader Hyeok Mu-gang spoke up.
"What about adding candidates from the Twelve Peak Citadels or unaffiliated figures to the shortlist? Wouldn't that be the wiser approach?"
"Just when I thought one storm had blown over, another pile of work comes crashing in......"
Е̊ n̈ů m̆а .і̆ d̀
At Jegal So-myeong's grumbling, Hyeok Mu-gang offered a thin smile.
"Still, we should count ourselves fortunate. At the very least, war did not break out......"
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"Well, when you put it that way, I suppose it is fortunate."
A brief pause in their conversation.
The corners of both men's mouths began to twitch simultaneously.
"Ahem, I cannot even begin to fathom the size of the debt we owe that boy, Jin So-un. Hrm."
Eṅū mā
"Grand Strategist, there is no need to fight back that smile. Heh heh. There is no one here but us."
At Hyeok Mu-gang's amused words, Jegal So-myeong finally burst out laughing.
"That boy absolutely must be put to work in the Mantongbu! Where in the wide world would I find someone who handles matters this well? He is a standout among standouts, a talent of the highest order among talents! Bwahahaha!"
It was hard to believe this was the same man who, mere days ago, had been raging about 'traitors' and 'spies' because Jin So-un had spirited Dam Ak away without reporting to him.
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Hyeok Mu-gang decided to take a step back.
It was true that Jin So-un was a talent beyond his own capacity to claim, and Jegal So-myeong had a mountain of work ahead of him. Offering a reward in advance to stoke his motivation would not be a bad move.
W̃ӗbnоvе l̈ Е nūm а
With a contented heart, Hyeok Mu-gang picked up his teacup and asked.
"When do you plan to begin the trial?"
"We will need our key witness—that boy Jin So-un—to arrive first."
Hyeok Mu-gang's hand, lifting the cup, stopped mid-motion. He tilted his head.
"Hm? He still has not arrived?"
Had they not sent the Red Dragon Pavilion to escort Jin So-un several days ago?
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And yet he had not arrived.
"The personnel who went as far as Eunhyeon were unable to find any trace of Jin So-un."
For an instant, the surface of the tea in his cup rippled, and a single drop slid down the side.
"Could...... something have happened?"
"He was still alive when the Black Thought Alliance arrived at Eunhyeon, so nothing should have gone wrong. Around that time, the Beggars' Sect resumed their reports as well."
Hyeok Mu-gang murmured, despite himself, his brow furrowed.
Е́_n u.m̌ а
"......I am worried."
"Do not worry. Do you honestly think that tenacious brat could die? He is probably off somewhere, taking a few days to rest and drink. He will show up soon enough."
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At Jegal So-myeong's words, Hyeok Mu-gang nodded and slowly willed his unease to fade.
Meanwhile, the drop of tea that had slid from his cup traced the length of his fingertip and fell—plip—to the floor.
And vanished without a trace.
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